a 45 year old man takes a tank for a joy ride. (http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=49750&cl=3345311&ch=1105621&src=news)
More about it here. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070714/od_afp/australiacrimeoffbeat)
19MPH? Reminds me of something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWmfhLHYjqI
You know, I'm sure I've seen that tank before. It's a 1967 Trojan Tank, I think, and some guy fixed it up and showed it off on A Current Affair.
I know the guy caused a lot of damage and that.... but still... that is so awesome.
Amazing.
Happens every so often here in the states. There was a case in 1995 where an ex-Army guy lost it and drove a tank around San Diego. I remember that somebody did that once with a bulldozer in 2004. He welded metal plates over the windows and decided to get even after he lost a zoning dispute. The bulldozer guy made sure that he was never going to prison.
The Trojan tank was a variant of the Challenger tank used by the engineers. I saw some articles on the incident and they stated that this was a British Armored Personnel Carrier (FV432) similar to the American M113 APC. For information on the American M113 APC and the British FV432 APC, look up APC in Wikipedia.
As you said, there have been a few incidents in the United States. I was informed that American tanks are stored with the breech blocks for the main gun removed and stored separately to limit the damage that can be done by joy rides.
*****
I was wrong. The FV432 apparently was officially known as the Trojan, but the article said that the name Trojan was never used in service.